Mandolin kits

[rptfree]

i am finaly interested in making my own f style mandolin from a kit, what i would like to know what is the best as for most complete and most ecanomical eany advise is welcome also i am interested in finding how to tap tune a home made mando and eany other advice that i have not thought about.

[billhay4]

Stewmac and Siminoff have reputations for very good materials and quality. I don't know the other kits, so this doesn't mean they aren't good, too.
Bill

[rptfree]

do you know wich of the 2 is better

[Bill Snyder]

...what i would like to know what is the best as for most complete and most ecanomical...
Given the criteria that I quoted from your post I would say the F-style kits from International Violin. It is the most complete and the least expensive.I can not attest to the quality as I have never seen one in person.
There have been photos posted by several happy cafe members of the Stew Mac, Siminoff and Int. Violin kits. If you are up to the challenge I am pretty sure you can build a pretty good or even a very good mandolin from any of these three kits.

[billhay4]

rptfree,
You are asking questions that are impossible to answer because the question is vague. "Better"? I think you need to do some research on instruments to determine exactly what you want in a kit and then contact the kit makers to see if they can give you this. The kind of wood, the level of work done by the kit manufacturer, the amount of machine work done, etc. are all highly variable in kits.
You need to narrow down what you want, the amount or work you want to do etc.
I might also warn that there is no guarantee a kit will result in a great instrument, none at all. The builder and his or her experience is still the most critical factor in this process. It takes many instruments to really know what you are doing here.
If you are very inexperienced and just want a good instrument, I recommend a used one. If you want to learn to build, recognize that a kit, or any first instrument, will have issues when it is finished.
At some point, however, you go from wanting a kit to wanting to build an instrument from scratch. Not as big a jump as you might imagine. Great plans exist for f-5's.
BTW, I also forgot to mention LMI's kits. They are highly customizable according to their latest catalogue.

[Tom C]

For an F style, I would go with the one that has the best looking scroll button. But of course some kits require alot more work than others. I believe Siminoff has many levels of completion that somebody can find that fits their skills the best. As for quality we need to hear from somebody who worked with these.

[Darren Kern]

The Siminoff and Stew Mac kits are great kits, they are comparable in quality of materials from what I can see. The International Violin kit requires the least amount of work since the sides are already bent and attached to the top. It is also the most economical since it includes tuners, bridge, etc. I had a good building experience with one of the IV F style kits.

I wouldn't worry too much with tap tuning with your first instrument, or your first several. I still tap the plates on my mandos when carving them, but I'm not trying to tune to anything in particular, just making sure that they resonate well and don't sound dead anywhere. If you search on tap tuning on this board, there's enough material to keep you busy reading for days. It's one of the most controversial topics in mando building, and there are lots of folks on both sides of the fence, regarding whether it's important or not. I would say just buy the new Siminoff book, and maybe some other good plans (like HoGo's), and try to carve your plates to some specs you get from some plans. You should end up with a nice sounding instrument for a first try.

[trevor flatiron]

Hi there I bought and built the stew mac f5 mando kit last year with outstanding reasults. and would not hesitate to build another.

[Andrew DeMarco]

Go with an International Violin kit and get your hands dirty.

[leathermarshmallow]

IV kit is the way to go.